Between September 2 and 4, 2024, the international conference of the GlobEthics Foundation took place in Geneva, Switzerland, on the topic of “Ethical Leadership for a Re-envisioned Future” (Ethical Leadership for a Re-envisioned Future). It was an event in the framework of the Global Ethics Forum, a dialogue platform offered by the GlobEthics Foundation, with the participation of a wide range of institutions, policy makers, experts, academics, as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations and religious bodies with the aim of focusing on the solution of ethical issues, but also in the networking and cooperation of the participants.
The 20th anniversary of GlobEthics was celebrated as part of the Global Ethics Forum 2024. Its founder and first president, Professor Christoph Stückelberger, handed over the baton of the presidency to Professor Dietrich Werner, a distinguished Evangelical theologian, who has also collaborated with the Volos Academy for many years, in a wide range of programs and initiatives.
Thematically, the Conference focused on the reflection on the future of the world and humanity from the perspective of ethical leadership, with an emphasis on issues of peace, sustainability and the digital revolution. Particular importance was given to intercultural dialogue and the contribution of the society to avoid polarization and to prevent conflicts, but also to the impact of Artificial Intelligence in higher education, as well as the purposes, role and responsibility of ethical leadership.
Volos Academy for Theological Studies was represented by its Director, Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis and the Research Associate Georgios Vlantis. They both had the opportunity to present the actions of the Academy, its initiatives and publications, highlighting the importance given to issues of moral reflection.
Mr. Vlantis also took part in a roundtable on “Social capital for Peace: How can ethical and spiritual leaders contribute to reconciliation and lives’s saving? Religious engagement perspectives”. At this round table, with the participation of distinguished Christian, Jewish and Islamic institutions, George Vlantis pointed out that the crisis observed in Orthodoxy, becoming even more clear in the Ukrainian issue, is also a crisis of leadership. Despite the activities, admonitions and example of bright personalities, such as the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, not a few Primates have chosen the path of silence, of indirect or even direct support of the Russian invasion in Ukraine and of the Russian narrative. In this direction, the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church forms a sad climax, offering even a pseudo-theological foundation for the war. Extensive reference was made to the “Declaration Against the Teaching of the ‘Russian World’ (Russkii Mir)”, an initiative taken by the Volos Academy and the Center for Orthodox Christian Studies of the Fordham University (New York), which received a hugely positive response worldwide, pointing out the prophetic responsibility of spiritual leadership.
Further information about the GlobEthics Foundation can be found here: https://globethics.net
Further information about the Global Ethics Forum 2024 is available here: https://globethics.net/events/global-ethics-forum-2024
The “Declaration against the teaching of the Russian World” can be read here: https://www.polymerwsvolos.org/…/diakirikis_kata_tis…/ and here https://publicorthodoxy.org/…/a-declaration-on-the…/
